A.T. Kearney Partners Mirko Warschun, Eric Gervet, Konstantinos Apostolatos, and Principal Rhiannon Thomas Present on The Platform Imperative: Consumer Goods Forum Special Session

NEW YORK, June 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, June 12, 2019, A.T. Kearney Partners Mirko Warschun, Eric Gervet, Konstantinos Apostolatos, and Principal Rhiannon Thomas will present their new paper at a Special Session of the Consumer Goods Forum, The Platform Imperative – Case for Action: Why & How? This session will take place at the Vancouver Convention Center from 10:00 a.m. and noon in rooms 121-122.

Setting the stage by tracking the progress of platform growth, Warschun, Gervet, Apostolatos, and Thomas will make the case that with the first wave of platform expansion and innovation manifesting itself in retail and media, and the second wave transforming travel and mobility, consumer industries must soon follow.

Traditionally, value was generated upstream, to be consumed downstream. The efficiency of this model has historically allowed consumer companies to maximize value. However, the shift toward a platform environment, where the end-users are responsible for creating value, has resulted in the fundamental reinvention of business models in retail, media, travel, and mobility. For those legacy companies that didn't change, stagnation of revenue and earnings growth took hold even as platform-based enterprises and ecosystems enjoyed oversized growth.

"Today, value is generated near the user, where platform-based companies own the customer relationship," said Eric Gervet, a partner in A.T. Kearney's Digital Transformation and Retail practices. "This is where value is created, where the proverbial rubber hits the road, and so this is where the investment must be made. If it doesn't matter to the end-user, platform-based companies are not investing in it." Platforms offer a potential solution to the challenge of stagnation by offering new channels through which they can gather and utilize customer data, increase customer engagement, and accelerate revenue and shareholder value growth.

Warschun, Gervet, Apostolatos, and Thomas' presentation will discuss how companies can rethink the production pipeline and, in light of shifting tides, evolve to meet an increasing need for more personalized, data-driven offerings. "If they haven't already, platforms will soon start to reshape and reframe your given market," said Mirko Warschun, EMEA lead partner for consumer and retail at A.T. Kearney. "Failure to address the challenge presented by competition from already-dominant platforms will lead to further margin erosion and, ultimately, obsolescence. Therefore, consumer organizations need to challenge the pipe mindset and truly understand the implications of this thinking for their industry. It's all about what the customer wants and most importantly, what they will want in the future. Organizations need to go beyond their existing category to identify the pain points and opportunities a platform can address."

Despite widespread adoption of platforms, A.T. Kearney research finds that there is still limited understanding of their critical importance to the future of the consumer industry. "While the vast majority of the CEOs we spoke with felt that having a platform strategy was becoming critical, most confessed limited knowledge and lack of clarity on where to start," said Konstantinos Apostolatos, leader of the Global Strategy practice of A.T. Kearney. "They also felt that there is a considerable capability gap they will need to close in order to develop a successful platform." Rather than wait, legacy companies and retailers in particular should tap into the power of platforms as a central tenet of their forward strategy. The Platform Imperative will break down two compelling opportunities for companies to utilize a new platform framework, engagement and frequency, showing how consumer companies can discover, design, and deliver their own platform futures.

For a copy of Warschun, Gervet, Apostolatos, and Thomas' presentation, please contact Meir Kahtan, [email protected].

About A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors to the world's foremost organizations. A.T. Kearney is a partner-owned firm, committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their most mission-critical issues.

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SOURCE A.T. Kearney

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